Another Airport, Uber ride and city, and now in Austin, Texas. Our hotel isn’t quite ready, so we explore the local area. The Colorado River runs through Austin, and there is a tremendous amount of construction going on. It is one of the USAs fastest growing cities, with a strong tech presence. We even saw driverless cars! The temperature is in the early 30s, with high humidity, and we are pleased when our room is ready.
Very close to Downtown is Rainey Street, consisting of a number of old bungalows. These have been converted in to bars and restaurants, and we had dinner at Bangers. This specialises in sausages and smoked meats, but also have salads and vege options. The street is now surrounded by high rises.
Today is bike tour day, and our guide is Rooster, who is quite a character. With another couple, he guides us around Austin on powerful e-bikes, which you don’t even need to pedal. It’s an interesting tour, and Rooster does a good job.
It is the beginning of summer, and Texas is really warming up. 34degrees today in Austin, and Houston could be hotter.
After dinner at a Japanese restaurant opposite our hotel, we walk down to the river area to do a kayak tour. The main purpose of the tour is to watch the Austin bat population fly out from a bridge, to get their food. There are approximately 1 million bats who have made the underside of the Congress Bridge their home. Around 9pm they emerge and swoop off. Huge numbers of people on the water and on the bridge to watch. A little difficult to see, and somewhat of an anti climax.
Another hot day in Austin, but our activity today is mainly indoors. We are going to the nearby Texas Hill Country and a BBQ lunch, followed by wine tasting at two wineries. Our tour leader is Jax, and making up our group are seven young ladies from Florida, on a bachelorette weekend. Assisting Jax is Cliffy, and both guides are friendly and helpful.
Lunch is at Salt Lick, a traditional Texas BBQ joint, where they slow cook the meat, and use flavoursome dry rubs. The meat is very tender and melts in the mouth!
Off to our first winery, which is just over the road, called Fall Creek. Many of the wines are made from local grapes, some from other parts of Texas and some from California. All good quality. Ten minutes up the road is Duchman Winery, specialising in Italian varieties made from Texas grapes. Again, good quality.
The volume on the ride back has gone up considerably, but the ladies are good value and interested in NZ.
